Root Advanced help needed, re: g1 root (not your average...)

[TheQuestion]

Ok, I have searched and searched for a solution with no luck, and I am at a loss here and seeking some expert advice.

Some background that might help: a year or so ago, my G1 was rooted successfully and I used to run JF no problem. But at some point for technical reasons I reverted to a standard HTC 1.5 build and then allowed the official 1.6 update to happen.

Now, fast forward to today when I want to try out the new Cyanogen 2.1 build, but along the way I am being told my phone does not have root. My revert/official update must have undone my root...if that is even possible.

So I figure the best thing to do was start over. I wiped everything clean and downgraded from 1.6 official to 1.0 (RC29). So far so good.

But then I get to the telnet step, which I had easily done once before all this mess, and I am greeted with a bunch of weird characters for a prompt: a bunch of question marks in diamonds and some squares - as if a font type is missing or something.

I tried running the mount/recovery commands anyway, but it didn't seem to do anything. And ROM manager still tells me I need root before continuing. So it definitely didn't take.

Any help would be appreciated - such as:

What do those characters mean?
Is there any fix/workaround for it?
How can I check to see if I am rooted (in or out of telnet)?
What to do from here?
Is it possible that I am half-rooted due to my various downgrades/upgrades, which is confusing the phone?

Or any other guidance!

Thanks in advance...
-TQ

 

[DarkTLRrider]

Would probably be best to ask this question over on the Cyanogen forum. I have had good luck there with support. I can't remember exactly but I believe you have to fire up rc29 log into your gmail account then go to contacts and type in telnet. This does nothing but it was a step in the wiki then reboot into telnet. Best refer to the wiki as I did it but am no expert sir.

CyanogenMod Wiki

 

[flight3]

I think I know the weird characters you are talking about, if you just type in:
"flash_image recovery /sdcard/cm-recovery-1.4.img" and press enter it should hopefully work.
As long as you have downloaded the correct file.

 

[MaxOmus]

You should just go the 1 click root method & be done with it, they have made rooting super easy nowadays... after you downgrade to rc29 you need to flash to the stock 1.5 & then you can run the 1 click root, which is called flash rec, I believe, its been awhile since I used. Just google g1 one click root, and there site should come up along w/ a tons of guides...

 

[simplyandyg]

I think I know the weird characters you are talking about, if you just type in:
"flash_image recovery /sdcard/cm-recovery-1.4.img" and press enter it should hopefully work.
As long as you have downloaded the correct file.

Ya, I'm pretty sure that works, and I think you might even be able to just type that in through console because I believe that's what I did.